RecipeTin Eats plagiarism scandal takes another turn as another author comes forward

The oven gloves are off in a war of words between two of Australia’s baking queens – as allegations of plagiarism bring their recipes under scrutiny. 

Nagi Maehashi, the best-selling author, food blogger and founder of RecipeTin Eats, alleged on Tuesday that baking influencer Brooke Bellamy had plagiarised recipes in her cook book Bake with Brooki – a claim Ms Bellamy and her publisher have denied.  

It comes after both Ms Maehashi and Ms Bellamy enjoyed a meteoric rise in the food blogging space. 

Ms Maehashi was born in Japan but grew up in Sydney. She is a former financier at Brookfield Multiplex and PwC who pivoted to food blogging in 2014.

Ms Maehashi’s cook books with Pan Macmillan Australia have sold hundreds of thousands of copies, won industry awards and smashed nonfiction sales records. 

Her widly popular website RecipeTin Eats, and a Sydney food bank feeding the city’s vulnerable, have only raised her profile further. 

The 47-year-old’s savvy business practice has afforded her a luxury lifestyle that includes a $7million Victorian manor in Hunters Hill, northwest Sydney. 

Her new adversary Brooke Bellamy, nee Saward, also turned to baking later in life. 

Nagi Maehashi (pictured) is a former financier at Brookfield Multiplex and PwC who pivoted to food blogging in 2014

Brooke Bellamy, nee Saward (pictured), is a former travel influencer who ran a blog called World of Wanderlust and published a book by the same name in 2016

US-based baker Sally McKenney claimed on Instagram that Ms Bellamy had also copied her Vanilla Cake recipe

Ms Bellamy is a former travel influencer who ran a blog called World of Wanderlust and published a book by the same name in 2016. 

That year the 33-year-old returned home to Tasmania and started successful cafe Charlie’s Dessert House, which is now owned and operated by her parents. 

In 2021 Ms Bellamy moved to Brisbane with her then-boyfriend, landscape architect Justice Bellamy, and started the bakery Brooki Bakehouse.

Her now husband, Mr Bellamy, hails from the family behind a famous food empire.

He grew up on the family farm where infant formula company Bellamy’s Organic was founded by his parents, David Bellamy and Dooley Crighton-Bellamy, before it was acquired by a Chinese dairy giant for $1.5million. 

In Brisbane, Mr Bellamy has been acting as a co-director of Brooki Bakehouse with his wife. The business has garnered a massive social media following off the back of TikTok videos of Ms Bellamy at work in the shop.

But it’s the debut cook book Ms Bellamy published with Penguin last year, Bake with Brooki, that her rival Ms Maehashi has taken issue with. 

Ms Maehashi, who will famously bake dozens of iterations of a treat before putting a recipe online, claims the recipes for Caramel Slice and Baklava in Ms Bellamy’s cook book are nearly identical to the ones she has posted on RecipeTin Eats.

Ms Maehashi will famously bake dozens of iterations of a treat before putting a recipe online

Ms Maehashi claims the recipes for Caramel Slice and Baklava in Ms Bellamy’s cook book are nearly identical to her own

Daily Mail Australia does not suggest that Ms Maehashi’s claims are true.  

‘To me, the similarities are so specific and detailed that calling these a coincidence feels disingenuous,’ she wrote on social media on Tuesday. 

‘There are also recipes from other authors, including from a very well known, beloved cookbook author where the similarities are so extensive, dismissing it as coincidence would be absurd (in my opinion).

‘I’m speaking up because staying silent protects this kind if behaviour.’

Ms Bellamy denied the claims, saying on Instagram: ‘I did not plagiarise any recipes in my book which consists of 100 recipes I have created over many years.’

She said she had been making and selling her caramel slice since 2016, whereas RecipeTin Eats published its recipe for the slice in 2020.

Ms Bellamy added she had ‘immediately offered to remove both recipes from future reprints to prevent further aggravation’. 

‘I have great respect for Nagi and what she has done in recent years for cooks, content creators and cookbooks in Australia – especially as a fellow female entrepreneur.’

Ms Bellamy denied the claims, saying on Instagram: ‘I did not plagiarise any recipes in my book which consists of 100 recipes I have created over many years’

‘To me, the similarities are so specific and detailed that calling these a coincidence feels disingenuous,’ Ms Maehashi wrote on social media

Ms Maehashi explained that out of respect for the other authors, she has chosen not to name them or share further details of the allegedly plagiarised recipes.

But a second baker did come forward to echo Ms Maehashi’s plagiarism claims just hours after she posted her statement.

US-based baker Sally McKenney claimed on Instagram that Ms Bellamy had also copied her Vanilla Cake recipe. Ms Maehashi had reached out to her to let her know. 

‘Original recipe creators who put in the work to develop and test recipes deserve credit – especially in a best-selling cookbook,’ Ms McKenney said. 

Penguin has also denied the allegations, saying via their lawyers ‘Our client respectfully rejects your client’s allegations and confirms that the recipes in [Bake with Brooki] were written by Brooke Bellamy’, according to Ms Maehashi. 

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Ms Maehashi, Ms Bellamy and Penguin for comment.  

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